City council warms to taxi-hailing app Uber

Mayor Naheed Nenshi and councillors appear more willing to embrace taxi-hailing app Uber than Calgary’s taxi regulators, who have been wary of the new hire system that’s spread around world cities. Uber, which lets users order and pay for rides by mobile phone, has tried since last year to break into a Calgary market chronically plagued by weekend and special-event cab shortages.

Jason Markusoff, Calgary Herald

Updated: July 21, 2014

Calgary’s taxi industry, which has long been plagued by supply shortages during special events and on weekends, fears U.S. based taxi-hailing app Uber will “encroach on everything,” undercutting prices and luring away customers.Ed Kaiser / Edmonton Journal

Mayor Naheed Nenshi and councillors appear more willing to embrace taxi-hailing app Uber than Calgary’s taxi regulators, who have been wary of the new hire system that’s spread around world cities.

Uber, which lets users order and pay for rides by mobile phone, has tried since last year to break into a Calgary market chronically plagued by weekend and special-event cab shortages.

But because they’re trying to operate here with sedans or limousines, the San Francisco-based firm has been handicapped by the $78.34 minimum for any sedan trip — nearly as much as a round trip between downtown and the airport.

The city’s taxi services branch has been unwilling to loosen its limo regulations to allow lower prices for short rides, because that might create a “shadow” service that hurts the supply-limited, highly controlled cab sector, said Mario Henriques, an official in the city’s licensing department.

Administrators came to council Monday with further restrictions, to require any luxury car trips to be booked 30 minutes in advance, which Henriques said would ensure no “direct competition” with taxis.

Nenshi voted against that change, and led council’s push to request a special report into Uber’s viability in Calgary.

“I want to make sure we don’t have a bureaucracy and a regulatory system that is restricting competition,” the mayor told reporters. “We want to make sure we protect people in the industry now, but competition is always a good thing.”

Unable to sway city officials, Uber has tried to appeal directly to Calgarians. It offered free sedan rides for a trial run last fall and, last Friday, a fleet of Uber-branded ice cream trucks distributed free treats to those who hailed or queued up.

Now, the company has an opening to woo city councillors.

“We’re excited about working with the mayor and city officials to create a permanent home for Uber and give Calgarians access to safer, cheaper and more reliable rides,” the company said Monday in an emailed statement.

Uber, which operates in Toronto, Montreal and 41 countries — and also offers ride-sharing — has drawn the ire of established cab companies worldwide, because they threaten to undercut prices or gobble up customers in systems regulated with the aim of linking cab supply to demand.

Len Bellingham, who runs Mayfair Taxi, said he heard nothing but grief from a driver on his last visit to Palm Springs, Calif., an Uber city.

“It’s going to encroach on everything. Let’s call a spade a spade,” said Bellingham, who sits on the Taxi Limousine Advisory Committee.

Working within existing rules, a new taxi brokerage has shaken up the sector: United Cabs, whose new booking app and phone technology Nenshi has hailed.

And the taxi regulator has promised that this fall, city staff will recommend a “significant” increase to the city’s 1,526 licensed cabs.

“That should alleviate a lot of the concerns in relations to service,” Henriques said.

Coun. Druh Farrell, who voted with Nenshi against the new limousine rules, said she’s fed up with the slow pace of change in taxi regulations, and would rather have a completely open entry system rather than the current limits.

Although chief regulator Marc Halat threatened an end to the tight cab supply earlier this year, both the city and regulator prefer a system that ensures there’s no glut of cabs during weekdays and daytime, when demand is low.

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